


Coulson Wasn't the First S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent She Met

by Quaketheskyejohnson



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Hawkeye (Comics), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, F/M, Gen, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-12 17:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10496457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quaketheskyejohnson/pseuds/Quaketheskyejohnson
Summary: Skye gets caught by a SHIELD agent who gives her the advice to hide in plain sight by hiding behind a billionaire and his lawyers. The billionaire is Tony Stark, and they seem to find it hard to get along.





	1. Assignment (Prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so this is my first Marvel fic I'm writing. I don't honestly ship Daisy with anyone on the show anymore, but this fic is based off of things my friend and I have talked about and things that happened in an au rp. I'm sorry if some things may seem OOC because of that, but I'll try to work on it. If you have any advice or tips or something let me know.

Clint Barton had a habit of picking up strays. No one was really sure how he did it, especially since he acted like an idiot half of the time. At first, they had been surprised, terrified even, when he brought in the Black Widow and acted as if they had been long-time friends. He turned people the right way and gave them second chances. S.H.I.E.L.D. couldn’t really complain about it when he managed to always make it work in their favor. His recruits always worked out well, even if some of them were a major hassle to deal with in the beginning. 

No one would really understand his latest stray, though, or why he had handled her the way he did. She wasn’t a fighter like the majority of the ones he took in. To S.H.I.E.L.D., she was just a nuisance really. They didn’t know her name, age, or even her gender at first, but they didn’t really care either. She was just another member of the Rising Tide, a hacker, who kept releasing the information that they needed to keep hidden. Her skills kept her mostly invisible though, and for the time, S.H.I.E.L.D. just wanted her and her Rising Tide buddies to be stopped before they released information to the world that could change everything.

Clint had been sent in because he had a sharper eye than everyone else. S.H.I.E.L.D. had tracked a few hacks to a coffee shop in Austin, Texas, and it had been his job to see how dangerous the threat was and eliminate it as necessary. Clint had imagined the Rising Tide hacker as many things, probably a nerdy guy who was just doing this to get attention by a bigger company to get a job or an older guy who still lived in his parents’ basement and was just doing this out of pure boredom. At worst, the hacker would have been well-trained in combat, and then the civilians nearby would have become a concern. No matter who it could have been, Clint had kept his eyes open, watching anyone who sat down with a laptop.

Eventually, Clint had spotted who he had suspected to be the hacker. He had to say he was surprised. She had barely looked like an adult, probably around 18 to 20 years old. She had had long brown hair, and she had been entirely focused on the hack she had been doing. She hadn’t noticed him a few tables over from her even though she had looked around constantly. The determination in her eyes had only made Clint sympathize, seeing himself in her in that moment.

He had been able to tell he startled her when he sat across from her. She had given him an awkward smile, but he had been able to see the confusion behind it. She would have said something, but Clint had spoken before she could get a word out. “How long did you think you could go before getting caught? I mean, really?”

“Oh, I don’t know. A couple more years maybe.” She had kept up a good act of being calm by responding jokingly. He had to give her that, but he had been able to see how concerned she really had been, knowing she’d been caught. He had been prepared to just give her a slap on the wrist and to just tell her not to do it again, but her next words had caught him off guard. “At least until I get the truth.” Her expression had shown that she had been just as surprised as him that she had said it.

The phrase itself shouldn’t have been that significant. It was basically the manifesto of the Rising Tide to find information and release it to the world, but the way she had said it had seemed more personal. They got information all the time, but “the truth” had meant she had been looking for something specific, something important to her.

“The truth about what exactly?” he had asked curiously, propping his elbows on the table and resting his chin on his hands.

“Everything,” she had said simply, taking a sip of her coffee and regaining her composure. “People deserve to know what S.H.I.E.L.D. is covering up.”

“And what’s in it for you? And don’t give me the whole ‘getting the truth to the people makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside’ crap.” He had rolled his eyes as he spoke. “What’s S.H.I.E.L.D. hiding from you specifically?” 

She had been silent for a moment, glancing out of the corner of her eye as if she had planned to make a run for it. It would’ve been a stupid decision if she had made it, but she had clearly realized that as well as she let out a sigh. “They’re the only lead I have on who my parents are.”

Clint had set his drink down, looking at her seriously. “You’re willing to do all of this, take all of this risk, to find who your parents are? You know, parents aren’t always what you want them to be, right?” He had spoken from personal experience, but she had just rolled her eyes in response, like she’d heard it a thousand times. “They can be worse than you imagine.”

She had just looked at him so stubbornly and seriously that she had reminded him of Natasha for just a moment. “I don’t care. There’s nothing you can say or do that will make me stop looking.”

He could have done a couple things that would have made her stop looking. A bullet to the head, a permanent S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, or some kind of memory wipe that he was sure S.H.I.E.L.D. probably had would have been enough to stop her from looking, but Clint had chosen none of those options and instead had just reclined back in the booth and let out a sigh. “Alright, but if you’re gonna be doing things like this, you gotta do it the smart way.” The look of confusion on her face was priceless, and Clint could only grin in response. “When S.H.I.E.L.D. finds you next time, they will try to take you out discretely. No one will ever have known you existed, not that I think you have much of a problem with that anyways, but the real way you get through this is by hiding in plain sight. Find yourself some billionaire or something. Hack your way in if you have to but stay under the radar at first. Then cozy up to them. If S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to get to you they'll have to avoid the attention of your billionaire friend and they're hundreds of lawyers.”

“I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. just covered everything up.” Skye gave him a disbelieving look, obviously thinking this was some kind of trap. “What's in it for you?”

“Some people are harder to cover up than others and aren’t worth covering up in the long run, especially if we can get people to not listen to them.” He sighed. “Nothing's in it for me. I've been where you are, on the opposite side of S.H.I.E.L.D. If I got a second chance, you should get one too.” He paused. “But you only get one shot at this. If you mess up S.H.I.E.L.D. will catch you.”

After a long moment of staring at her now empty cup of coffee, Skye looked up at Clint. “Got any billionaires in mind?” Clint smirked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to get this next chapter done soon-ish. No promises though.


	2. "She Might as Well Be One of Those Sweaty Cosplay Girls Crowding Around Stark Tower."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint helps Skye break into Stark Industries to get her a job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I didn't expect many people to read this to be honest, so I felt indebted to you guys and got this chapter out earlier than I planned to. I hope you like it.

Clint couldn't have chosen a more well known billionaire, which provided its own set of problems. First, the guy had some of the best security that Skye had ever seen from someone who wasn't in the Rising Tide. While it was still doable, hacking into his servers was hard, and she had to be in his building to get to them. Clint helped her get in and out undetected. He apparently had something personal against the billionaire, but Skye didn’t ask him what it was. She doubted he would have told her why anyways. In the end, things worked out fine. Clint was able to use the crowd of cosplayers outside the building as a cover for both of them to get in and out undetected. She had to remind herself that he was a professional at this, and it shouldn’t have surprised her as much as it did.

Once they were out and far enough from the building, Clint pulled her aside. “And you’re sure you put in everything that I told you to put in?”

Skye nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. It’s not exactly my first time doing something like this, though I don’t usually try to get a job from the people I’m hacking into. That’s new, but I’ve got an interview with them tomorrow. I’ve got enough of a fake background to be able to get hired by anyone, even if he is a billionaire.”

That earned her a shrug from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He must have seen better in someone else. “Sounds like you’re set then. Don’t screw it up. I’ll try not to see you around.” He winked at her before taking off and leaving her alone.

 

* * *

 

The interview was held in the same building that Skye had broken into to hack their servers. She supposed it was only fitting that that was the case, and now she found herself sitting across from a woman with red hair and a brown suit. She looked like she had been doing a thousand things in an hour. She wasn’t much older than Skye was, but she had probably become way more accomplished than Skye could ever hope to be. It was a bit intimidating, and Skye couldn’t help feeling a bit inferior in her simple pink dress and less than honest motives.

They had been talking for awhile now, going over Skye’s past experience as if she hadn’t faked it all to get herself here. It was obvious that the woman thought it was all real and accurate. Most importantly though, she thought it made Skye a qualified candidate for being a part of the billionaire’s security detail.

“So is there anything else I need to know about the job?” Skye asked after she had basically been told that she was almost guaranteed the position.

The woman ⸺ her name was Pepper ⸺ looked hesitant at first. “Mr. Stark can be . . . difficult at times, so just try to handle it as best as you can. He doesn’t care for bothering with security either, so he may just ignore you.” Pepper gave Skye a once-over, looking at her like she could be another task to deal with later on. There was almost a look of pity on her face, but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. “You’ll be shadowing Happy for your first week, so you can see what exactly you’ll be needing to do. I’ll send you the address, but you can start Monday.”

Skye stood up and smiled. She reached a hand over to shake Pepper’s hand. “Thank you. You don’t know how much this means to me.”

 

* * *

 

 

Skye sat in her van, holding her phone to her ear. She had been sitting in a driveway for almost ten minutes now, more than half of which had been spent trying to explain what she was doing to Miles. He was less than fond of it all. “Miles, it’s fine. Trust me. It’s just a job, and it’s not like I’m doing anything dangerous or going face to face with S.H.I.E.L.D. or anything.”

“But the guy who told you to do this _was_ S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Miles argued back at her. “What if it’s a trap, and they’re just trying to get you alone so they can take you out quietly?”

Skye sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know he was S.H.I.E.L.D., but if he had wanted to take me out quickly and quietly, he had plenty of opportunities to do it. If I feel like it’s some sort of trap, or there’s any danger, I’ll get out. Deal?”  
  
“Promise?”  
  
“Promise.”  
  
“Deal.”

“I’ve got to go. Bye.”  
  
“Call me af-” Skye hung up and stuffed her phone in her pocket before hopping out of her van. She was dressed semi-professionally, wearing a white striped dress, a black leather jacket, and black combat boots. She figured that they would all look better than her anyways, so it didn’t really matter what she wore. The building itself looked better than her in her opinion, though it was a billionaire’s mansion, so it only made sense that it would look so grande.

As she made her way up to the door, she saw a girl leaving the place. Her hair was mostly a mess, and it was obvious that she had left in a hurry since her clothes were in such a disarray. She was even holding her bra in her armpit as she dialed a number and started talking to someone on the phone as she walked quickly past Skye. She stopped for a moment when she saw Skye’s van, looking completely confused before she saw a car coming up in the driveway, apparently finding what she was looking for. At the same time that she got in the car and drove away, Skye rang the doorbell, waiting somewhat impatiently for the door to be opened.

 

* * *

 

After a certain point in time, a lot of what Pepper told Tony became noise to him. He knew what she was saying, and he somehow managed to tune into what seemed more important to him. However, he didn’t really enjoy it most of the time. It was just a bunch of lists to him, lists of things he needed to do, lists of things he needed to say, lists of people he needed to thank, and lists of competitors he needed to crush. Right now, they were doing the list of things that would be new to him and things he would have to learn or remember eventually, whatever came first.

“And we’ve added someone else to your security detail,” Pepper was saying, standing next to Tony with a tablet in her hand while Tony rested on the couch, throwing a ball straight up into the air and catching it repeatedly.

What did he need additional security for? “I already have Happy as my bodyguard. I don’t need anyone else.” Happy, who was standing in the corner of the room, playing on his phone, stopped playing for a moment to smile at that statement, and then he went right back to what he was doing. Tony didn’t even have to see him to know he had done that.

“Bodyguards aren’t the only type of security you need.” Pepper sighed. “The company also needs electronic security.”

“Electronic security?” Tony asked incredulously, sitting up. “We _make_ the electronic security, and isn’t the point of electronic security for it to make things secure by itself? Why do we need a person for that? Better yet, why am I not already considered that person?”

“Because you can’t do everything at once, Tony. You have a busy enough schedule already. You don’t have the time to be worrying about this stuff too.”

“Says who?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Says your schedule. Besides, I’ve already given her the job. She’s going to be shadowing Happy. Please try not to chase her away.”

“Wait, “her”? Happy, did you know about this? What’s she look like? She alright?”

“She’s cute.” Happy shrugged.

Pepper held her tablet out to Tony and let him go through pictures they had of the girl. “Her name is Skye Sutter. She graduated cum laude from MIT with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. She’s made the security systems for more than a few banks.”

“And she wants to work for me? Who am I kidding? Of course she does. I’m me. I still don’t need her though. When does she start?”

The doorbell rang.

“Now. I'm serious though. Don't scare her away, and don't-"

"Be too charming?" Tony finished for her, though it clearly wasn't what she was going to say. "Like you said, Pepps, I've got bigger fish to fry than to worry about her."

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I included a picture of what outfit Skye was wearing to her interview and to actually go to Tony's mansion. I hope you have enjoyed this. Also, if you're up to date on what's happening in Agents of Shield right now, I'll be crying with you. If you need to vent about it, feel free to use the comments, and I will probably join you. I'll still try to work on that next chapter though.
> 
> Edit: I forgot what I was writing for a good bit, but I'm working on the next chapter again. I hope it will be done within the week.


End file.
